ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Recently, competency-based education has been reorganized in the dental hygiene curriculum. In education, non-cognitive factors are emphasized. Grit, the non-cognitive ability to persevere to achieve an individual’s long-term goals, is emerging. This study aims to identify the degree of grit and core competencies in students and to investigate the relationship between them and the factors that affect these core competencies. METHODS: This study was conducted using 350 dental hygiene students who were randomly assigned a structured questionnaire to complete. The final analysis included 321 students. The survey contents evaluated grit, core competencies, and general characteristics. The difference in the degree of grit and core competencies in conjunction with the general characteristics of the subjects was analyzed using the t-test/Mann Whitney U-test and the ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis H test. Multiple regression analysis was then conducted to determine the factors affecting the core competencies of the subjects. RESULTS: The difference of ‘grit’ according to general characteristics was statistically significant in ‘major satisfaction’, ‘relationship’, ‘perceived academic achievement’, ‘grade point average (GPA)’. The difference in ‘core competency’ according to general characteristics was statistically significant in ‘grade’, ‘department selection’, ‘major satisfaction’, ‘relationship’, ‘perceived academic achievement’, ‘GPA’. Among the sub-areas of ‘grit’, ‘perseverance of effort’ showed a high correlation with ‘core competency’ and was statistically significant. As a result of regression analysis, ‘major satisfaction’, ‘perceived academic achievement’ and ‘grit’ of dental hygiene students had a statistically significant influence on ‘core competency’. Meanwhile, ‘GPA’ was not seen to be statistically significant in ‘core competency’. CONCLUSION: Grit, a non-cognitive factor, had a statistically significant effect on core competency, while the effects on GPA, a cognitive factor, were not statistically significant. Among the sub-factors of grit, ‘perseverance of effort’ had a statistically significant effect on ‘problem-solving competency’ and ‘academic competency’, which are ‘core competency’ sub factors.
Subject(s)
Humans , Competency-Based Education , Curriculum , Education , Oral HygieneABSTRACT
La diabetes mellitus es una enfermedad endocrina metabólica que afecta a varios órganos de la economía, y la cavidad bucal no está exenta de ella. Se presentan los resultados de una investigación de intervención, longitudinal y prospectiva desarrollada en la Clínica Estomatológica "Guamá" del municipio Pinar del Río, durante el año 2008, con una muestra de 137 pacientes diabéticos, pertenecientes a los Consultorios Médicos 272, 264 y 265 atendidos en la Clínica Estomatológica "Guamá" a los que se les constató un nivel de conocimientos sobre salud bucal insuficiente, lo que motivó aplicar un programa educativo con el objetivo de elevar el nivel de conocimientos sobre salud bucal. Para ello se elaboró una encuesta de 10 preguntas que se aplicó, antes y después del desarrollo del programa, el cual se fue cumplimentando semanalmente a través de la aplicación de técnicas afectivas participativas. Los resultados obtenidos fueron registrados en una base de datos del sistema estadístico STATISTIC, aplicándoseles estimaciones puntuales de frecuencias relativas para el análisis estadístico descriptivo y la prueba Chi cuadrado en su variante tabla de contingencia para el análisis estadístico inferencial. Se corroboró que el nivel de conocimientos sobre salud bucal de los pacientes diabéticos incluidos en la investigación antes de la aplicación del programa educativo era insuficiente (51%) con predominio de personas con niveles primario (29.1%), y posteriormente a ello se logró elevar significativamente (90,5%) constatándose una gran aceptación del programa por parte de los pacientes.
Diabetes Mellitus is an endocrine-metabolic disease which affects several organs and oral cavity is not an exception. At "Guama" Dentist's Clinic an intervention, descriptive, longitudinal and prospective research was conducted in 2008, Pinar del Rio municipality and the results were presented. The sample was comprised of 137 diabetic patients belonging to Medical Offices No-272, 264 and 265 attending to "Guama" Dentist Clinic, their level of knowledge about oral health was insufficient; thus a survey of 10 questions was applied before and after the development of the program. This program was implemented weekly by means of participative techniques. Corroborating that the level of knowledge about oral health of diabetic patients included in the research before the application of the educative program was insufficient, and after putting the program into practice the level of knowledge increased significantly, verifying that it was very successful with the patients. The results obtained were recorded in a database of the statistical system, score estimations of relative frequencies to perform the descriptive and the chi square test in its variable of contingency table to the inferential statistical analysis.